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THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE] OF AVAR 



A. DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED IN 



THE BAPTIST MEETING H(3USE, 



IN FRANKLIN, INDIANA, 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE NATIONAL FAST 



SEDPTE3S/IBEH S6, 1861. 



BY Rev. SILAS BAILEY, D. D., 



PRKSIDENT OF FRANKLIN COLLEGE. 



INDIANAPOLIS: 

I»ODD k CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 
1861. 



1 45 s 



coriRESP'0>;rDE]sroE;, 



FEANKLIN, INDIANA, 
September 26th, 



N'A, ] 

1, 1861. I 

Rev. Silas Bailey. D. I).: 



Dear Sir: — The undersigned, your neighbors and friends, having had 
the pleasure of hearing you deliver your discourse, this day, on the present 
alarming condition of our country, earnestly request you to furnish them with a 
copy of it, for publication in pamphlet form. 

They believe that its publication and circulation would do much to aid the pub- 
lic in coming to an intelligent conclusion of the origin, causes and effects of our 
national troubles. Respectfully, 

Wm. WESLEY WOOLLEN, 
I. I. SADLER, 
T. A. PINKNEY, 
WILLIAM NEEDHAM. 



FRANKLIN COLLECiE, ) 
Franklin, Ind., October 5tli, 1861. | 



Gentlemen : 



The discourse, a copy of which you request for publication, was pre- 
pared at short notice, and amidst the many interruptions incident to the com- 
mencement of an academic year. 'The train of thought, however, is by no means 
new to me. It is one which a diligent study of the history of the past, and a 
careful observation of the present, have forced upon my mind. And I complied 
the more cheerfully, therefore, with the request of my junior bretliren in the min- 
istry, courteously extended to me, to address my fellow citizens, because it gave 
me an opportunity to collect together and test the views previously entertained. 
Though prepared without any thought of its publication, yielding to your judg- 
ment of its merit, rather tlian acting upon my own, I herewith place a copy at 
'-our disposal. Yours, with great respect, 

SILAS BAILEY. 

Wm. Wesley Woollen, Esq., 

I. I. Sadler, M. D., 

T. A. Pinkney, M. D., 

Wm. Needham, Esq. 



'3 



DISCOURSE 



"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, 
but a sword."— Mat. 10: 34. 

Some minds have found it difficult to rcconcilo this declaration 
with what prophets wrote and angels sung. Before the advent of 
the Messiah, it was written, " His name shall be called the Prince of 
Peace ; and of the increase of his government and peace, there shall 
be ro end." And the angelic song, announcing his advent, was in the 
same strain: "Glory to God in the highest ; and on earth, peace, 
good Avill towards men." Yet in giving an account of the effect of 
his own mission, he says, " Think not that I am come to send peace 
on earth ; I came not to send peace, but a sword." "I am come to 
set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against 
her mother ; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household." 
The contradiction here is only a seeming, not a real, one. It is the 
result of his mission to the abodes and the hearts of men, viewed 
from two diiferent positions. There is, in the experience of every 
disciple, both this peace and this warfare. " In me," said the Sa- 
vior, in that last, affecting interview with his chosen ones, before his 
passion, " In me ye have peace, in the world ye shall have tribula- 
tion." And so they soon found it; and themselves testify that they 
are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in 
despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed. 
And so the church has found it. Though driven by a relentless per- 
secution into the wilderness, in the mountain fastnesses, she has 
found a peace in communion with her Head, passing all understand- 
ing ; and the hills and the rocks have echoed back her hymns of 
lofty praise. 

The subject to Avhich your attention is invited, is the one suggest- 
ed by the text, viz.: That every great change in the thinking and be- 
lief of men, or in the intellectual and moral condition of the world, 
is accompanied with discord, violence and war. You may reverse 



the proposition and have another equally true, viz.: Among enlight- 
ened nations, where there are discord and war, there a great change 
is taking place in the social, or intellectual, or moral condition of 
society. 

My apology for the discussion of a proposition so evidently true, 
is, that the circumstances in Avhich we have been placed, during the 
greater part of our national history, have driven us unconsciously to 
the opposite belief. Dissent ^rora and opposition to views, held and 
published by any individual, or by any body of men, have come to 
be rewarded as evidence, either of the unsoundness of the views, or 
of culpable imprudence and unskillfulness on the part of those who 
hold and defend them ; a sentiment most manifestly at variance with 
truth, and hostile to the progress of truth. Besides, I can conceive 
of no theme more befitting the present crisis in our national affairs, 
than this. 

With this apology I proceed to the discussion of the first propo- 
sition announced. 

I. The proper proof of this proposition is found in the records 
of the past. To the diligent student of history, this has all the fa- 
miliarity and force of an axiom, or self-evident truth. Ask him 
where he finds the working of such an underlying and universal 
principle ? and he will inquire of you where you find it not ? Wheth- 
er we go back to the most ancient times, or confine our research to 
the events yet fresh in the recollection of this generation, the con- 
clusion is one and the same. 

The oldest history extant, save the Bible, wiitten four hundred 
years before Christ, is the story of that great conflict, from which 
Europe dates its intellectual and political supremacy. It is the re- 
hearsal of events which, even at this distance of time, seem the most 
marvelous and are the most touching of any in the annals of the 
human race. There was an effort made and persisted in, for more 
than forty years, by the older empires of Asia, to crush out and 
destroy a rising civilization, different, widely different, from, and 
therefore dangerous to, their own. On the western shores of the 
-^gean sea, art, and poetry, and eloquence, were assuming new and 
more fascinating forms; philosophy was enunciating new principles; 
and, from the combined influence of all these, government itself was 
established upon a new basis, and came forth to the world on a new 
mission. The struggle was long, and the contest severe and bloody, 
through which the sceptre of empire passed from the continent of 



Asia to that of Europe. Grecian and Persian armies passed and re- 
passed, again and again, the ^gean sea, on their errand of war, 
carnage and death, before Grecian art, and philosophy, and politics, 
finally triumphed over Persian. The representatives of the two 
great continents met at Marathon and Thermopylffi, at Artcmisium 
and Salaniis, in dreadful strife, to decide questions on Avhich the des- 
tiny of unborn and unnumbered generations depended. And the 
names of Miltiades, Leonidas, Themistocles, Aristides, Alcibiades 
and others, who, as statesmen and generals, conducted the republics 
of Greece through this great struggle, are held in everlasting re- 
membrance. They gave the world a civilization higher and richer 
than any that preceded it ; and were thus benefactors of their race : 
and wh}^ should they not be thus honored ? 

Look upon the map of England. At AVindsor, twenty-two miles 
west of London, is a castle, the favorite country residence of Eng- 
lish monarchs for seven hundred years. Here are extensive gar- 
dens, parks, and other conveniences for royal pastime ; and here also 
is St. George's Chapel, and, in the vaults underneath it, the tombs of 
queens and kings. Within sight of the Castle, on the Thames, is a 
meadow called Runnymede. Six hundred and fifty j^ears ago, in 
one part of this meadow, were encamped, ready for battle, Barons, 
yeomen, merchants and ecclesiastics, all having a common cause ; 
and in another part of it. King John and what followers he could 
command. And why were they here ? Why was this host, in arms 
against their sovereign, called " the army of God and the Holy 
Church ? " This very name tells you why they were here. It was 
in the holy cause of freedom ; it was to put an end to the oppression 
of the throne to and for all generations, that they were here ; and 
might they not with right assume this name ? There the Magna 
Gharta Libertatum had its birth. There the constitution, of which 
every Englishman and all of English lineage are proud, was brought 
into well-defined shape and form. And there, too, with sword and 
pike and halberd in nand, subjects demanded, and the sovereign con- 
ceded, that taxes of all kinds shall only be raised by the consent of 
the representatives o^ the people; and that no subject shall be "im- 
prisoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or in any manner injured or pro- 
ceeded against by the crown, otherwise than by the legal judgment 
of his peers, or by the law of the land ; " great principles, which, 
five hundred years after their embodiment in the English constitu- 
fon, wrought out another revolution, and gave us our own independ 



ence ; principles, that to-day are carrying conscious security and 
happiness to hundreds of millions of human hearts. 

But look again at the map. There are numerous towns with ban- 
ners attached and dates affixed. There are Edge Hill and 1642; 
Marston Moor and 164:4; Naseby and 1645; and Worcester and 
1651; where Cromwell and Parliament, and Puritan and people, in 
arms, met the King and the Nobility, and High Churchmen and 
Catholics. 

And was there nothing at stake in that great contest, which, for 
nine years, agitited and shook all England? Did Cromwell leave 
his farm and place himself at the head of armies ; did Parliament 
maintain its continued existence for twelve years, in the face of royal 
prerogatives : was the monarch taken prisoner and brought to the 
scaffold, without cause ? Was it even a struggle of ambition for 
place and power? Was it not rather a conflict of opinions, relating 
to rights, the old with the new ; one striving to maintain, the other 
to gain, the ascendency ? And has not this great conflict been a 
lastinjz blessino; to the world? Has not the whole race since occu- 
pied higher ground in all that pertains to human weal ? It v/as to 
accomplish or to prevent all this that the two great armies met on 
these battlefields. Nor did they retire until the prerogatives of the 
King wei-e better defined, and the rights of the subject better guar- 
antied. Such men as Cromwell, Hampden, Sidney, Vane, Hazel- 
rigg and Milton are not in arms merely to gratify their lust for power. 
Or, if you turn to our own land, you find abundant proof of the 
same truth. Warren did not leave his professional practice to dis- 
cuss, again and again, in public orations, at the peril of his life, 
matters pending between the colonies and the mother country, and, 
as the conflict deepened, to fall, leading on undisciplined troops in 
defense of the same : Otis, and Henry, and Livingston, and 
Witherspoon, and Washington, and the Adamses, and the Lees, and 
the Rutledges, did not spend years in anxious deliberation, and in 
most difficult and trying warfare, without any reason, or for a trivial 
and unimportant one. They deliberated and they acted ; they met 
the enemy in the cabinet, and then in the field, in defense of the 
great principles first formally enunciated by the Continental Con- 
gress, and then read approvingly from a thousand rostrums and pul- 
pits. 

Perhaps a more touching proof of the proposition before us may 
be found in cases where a single individual takes up a new and an- 
tagonistic position. 



There is not a single tenet -which we, as churciies, hold, or a single 
privilege which we, as citizens, enjoy, which has not, somewhere and 
at some time in the past, gone through a baptism of blood. Its first 
announcement, or subsequent defense, has cost somebody, perhaps 
many, a loss of all things, even of life itself. 

You now believe that the earth is roun'l and that it turns upon 
its axis, and makes its annual circuit around the sua. The teacher 
with apple and lamp, if better apparatus be not at hand, now 
makes this plain and easy to be understood by the mind of a child; 
The tiiought of molesting him for teaching so simple a truth Avould 
be now evidence of — we hardly no Avhat. But has it always been 
thus ? Did not its first announcement fill the church with alarm ? 
And was not the great Florentine philosopher sentenced, for such 
an announcement, to three years imprisonment in the dungeons of 
the Inquisition ? The humiliating spectacle, preceding this, of the 
first intellect of his age, compelled by a set of ignorant monks to 
adjure its own great discoveries in the field of science, I will not at- 
tempt to describe. The years that Galileo afterwards spent in exile 
were nothing in comparison with the mortification of such an adju- 
ration. 

Salvation by simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is now a well 
established bible truth. It is a comfort in lifs, and the only ground 
of hope in death, to unnumbered millions. It is not only welcome, 
but demanded, in all our sanctuaries. Should our pastors become 
silent in reference to it, or fail to gire it a well-merited prominence, 
however much we may love them, their ministrations would be with- 
out edification to the children of God, and their services would be 
dispensed with. And could we not supply their places by others 
more loyal to truth, we would write Ichabod upon the walls and 
close the doors of our holy places. 

But simple and elementary and important as this truth may be, 
mixed as it is with all our theological views, so underlying as it now 
does all our christian experience and religious hopes, did not its an- 
nouncement once shake all christiandom ? And did not thousands 
ofi'er up their lives and seal with their blood their testimony in favor 
of this great truth ? 

You now believe, and you glory in the belief, that all the power 
in the State emanates from the people; and, therefore, that rulers 
ave rightfully elevated to their high positions by the sufi'rages of 
men. Has there never been a time when the utterance of this truth 
was treason ? Has no one ever gone to the Tower, and from the 



8 

Tower to the scaffold for questioning whether Kings are such by di- 
vine right? Are there no coins still in circulation among us whose 
superscription contains this sentiment? It is, fortunately, locked 
up in a dead language out of harm's way. 

You now find no difficulty in defining the sphere of the church 
and of the State. Neither now interferes. with the duties or respon- 
sibilities of the other ; and yet, though entirely disconnected, both 
work harmoniously together in securing and promoting the temporal 
and spiritual interests of men. But, for preaching this now univer- 
sally received doctrine, did not the general court of Massachusetts 
drive out, in the dead of winter, one of her ministers into the wil- 
derness and cause him to pass fourteen weeks, and, in his own quaint 
language, "not know what bed or bread did mean ? " 

But enough and more than enough evidence drawn from the 
records of the past. Whoever casts in his lot and identifies himself 
with the destiny of anything great and good, but new, will necessa- 
rily provoke hostility; and invite to himself all the animosity which 
men feel towards those who invade or disturb the ancient realm of 
thought. The vanguard in the army of reform is always exposed to 
imminent peril. Advanced positions are not taken and held with- 
out the most determined resistance on the part of those who have 
long had them in undisputed possession. 

11. A second argument in favor of our proposition may be drawn 
from the nature and the interest of men ; and the changes which the 
introduction of any great principle, until then unrecognized, effects 
in the condition of Society. 

The natural state of society is, without doubt, for wise and be- 
neficent reasons, one of repose. The inclinations and interests of 
the mass are both on the side of public tranquility. Moreover, there 
is a tendency in the public mind to believe that the present order of 
things, be that order what it may, does not admit of any great im- 
provement, and that the point reached at present in the progress of 
society does not admit of being exceeded. If there be imperfec- 
tions they are such as are incident to all things human ; and it is 
better 

"to bear those ills we liavo, 
Than tiy to others that we know not of. 
And enterprises of great pith and moment, 
With this regard, their currents turn awry. 
And lose the name of action." 

It must also be remembered that men's minds travel easily, only over 
beaten paths and in well-worn ruts. The introduction of a new 



9 

principle lifts them out of these ruts, and turns them aside from 
these beaten paths, and is, consequently, attended with a loss of 
confidence. If the current of thought take the new direction, who 
can tell to what it may lead ? or who can give any assurance that it 
will not be the destruction of all things made sacred by long usage 
in the past and by a thousand tender and hallowed associations in 
the present ? 

If the sun is stationary and the earth is the body in motion, what 
shall we do with the past firm convictions to the contrary? Nay, 
worse, what shall we do with the very language of inspiration, touch- 
ing this motion ? It speaks distinctly of the sun as rising and set- 
ting; of its going forth from the end of the heaven, and its circuit 
being unto the ends of it , of its standing still and going backward, 
as contrary to nature. 

And they feared to have this great astronomical discovery go 
forth to the world, lest it should upheave and overturn the founda- 
tion of their faith and hopes. 

If all power emanates from the people; if rulers derive their just 
powers only from the consent of the governed , by what means can 
the thrones of monarchs and despots be made secure ? If all men are 
allowed to read the bible without restraint, and to entertain such 
views of its teachings as may thus be impressed upon their minds, 
who will vouch for the unity of the faith of the church ? And who 
will be responsible for the disastrous effects of heresy and schism ? 
If total abstinance from all that intoxicates be the true moral prin- 
ciple, what will become of the families of those who have hitherto 
derived their support from the sale of such liquors ? and what shall 
be done with the immense harvests of corn and barley, and the cap- 
ital invested in distilleries, shipping, &c. ? Human nature and hu- 
man interests, and the superstitions of men, being such as they are, 
whither can you turn in earnest with any great, but, hithurto, unap- 
plied truth and not stir up opposition and war? It was in this sense 
that the Savior meant to forewarn his disciples in all ages, that the 
promulgation of Christianity would be like sending a sword (the 
emblem, of war) among nations ; nay, even into private families. 

III. Another argument which I adduce is the care with which 
men guard the spots where the sword has brought to an end some 
long pending contest. There they build their loftiest and most en- 
during monuments. Though no village may ever be built near the 
battle field; though the busy hem of commerce may never disturb 



10 

its silence ; yet, around it the historian lingers long, with ever deep- 
ening interest. He traces with care, onward from their very incep- 
tion, the great truths which here outcropped, and in defense of which 
tens of thousands of brave hearts rallied, and thousands of valuable 
lives were freely offered up. He follows them onward still, as they 
go back victorious and triumphant to enjoy a place ever more, un- 
questioned in the nation's institutions and affections. To them the 
orator and statesman turn the attention of their countrymen in sea- 
sons of despondency. From a pilgrimage to them patriotism is in- 
spired anew for great and heroic achievements. And when the 
principles, there baptised in blood, have spread world-wide, then the 
battle-field, where they received the arbitrament of war, becomes 
the common and cherished inheritance of the entire human race. 
Dr. Johnson, at the close of a visit to an island from which the 
savage clans and roving barbarians of the Highlands had derived 
the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion, justly re- 
marks, "Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy 
as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which 
has been dignified by wisdom, bravery or virtue. That man is little 
to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of 
Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins 
of lona." 

IV. My last argument is derived from the common sense of man- 
kind. This has its place in war as well as in philosophy, or the more 
familiar and every day affairs of men. We may assume it as true 
that men do not, for trifling and unworthy reasons, leave their pur- 
suits, their gains, their neighbors, families and homes, with all their 
associations and comforts. They do not plunge families into grief, 
or afflict them with penury and want, merely to gratify the ambition 
of a general, or to avenge wrongs in which the nation has no interest. 
Wellington and Bonaparte, with their hosts, did not meet at Water- 
loo without design or purpose. The eyes of the civilized world 
were fixed upon them with intense anxiety. Every well-informed 
subject in Europe, and every citizen in America, felt that he and his 
posterity to the latest generation, all were to be vitally affected by 
the issue of that final battle between those Uxo great captains. 

Our fathers of seventy-six did not shut up all their institutions of 
learning, from the common school to the university; did not turn 
their colleges into barracks for men, and their sanctuaries into stalls 
for horses, without a cause. They did not leave their husbandry to 



11 

women and cause an utter suspension of commerce; did not rush to 
Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Trenton, YorktOAvn and Camden, merely in 
defense of glittering generalities. Such a supposition is a libel up- 
on their common sense. 

Nor is it supposable any more now than then, that without cause, 
greater armies than those commanded by Washington and Howe, or 
even those commanded by the Iron Duke and the Emperor of the 
French, are in the field, and, with the most terrible implements of 
war and death, are confronting each other. Does the christian states- 
man, whose life has been one of pre-eminent patriotism, without an 
adequate reason, when suddenly summoned to depart this life, for- 
bid his family to call away his own son from his post of duty to re- 
ceive his parting blessing or even to share the bereavement of his 
household? Do such men as Bancorft, Gushing, Hallett, Dickinson, 
Dallas, Holt and x3thers of equal eminence as scholars, orators or 
statesmen; men whose lives have been given to their country and 
whose loyalty is above suspicion ; bend all their energies, lay under 
contribution all their wisdom and experience, and bring out all their 
eloquence to hasten their fellow- citizens forward as one man in the 
prosecution of this great contest, without giving any satisfactory 
reason for what they counsel ? The common sense of men is not so 
sadly at fiiult. The supposition is absurd. 

Admitting then that the battle field has a deeper meaning than 
that v/hich appears upon its surface, it is the duty of the christian 
and the citizen to learn, if possible, what it is. Such an inquiry, 
while the contest is raging, all are aware is not an easy one ; nor, in 
the absence of candor and impartiality, is such an inquiry likely to 
prove successful. Let us then, divesting ourselves as far as possible 
of whatever may bias our judgment, ascertain the significance of the 
painful and trying conflict in Avhich the nation is engaged. That 
there is such a significance is plain from what we have already «aid. 
If we fail to comprehend it, the historian, who, fifty years hence, 
shall review this struggle, will not. 

I. There are essential differences in soil, climate, and, of course, 
in the products and material interests of the North and South. There 
is also a difference in the social habits, institutions, culture and char- 
acter between northern and southern men. These differences existed 
at the outset of the government. But it was thought that the con- 
cessions and compromises contained in the constitution had mastered 
these difficulties, and under it the administration of the government 



12 

would not be attended with any unusual embarrassment or peril. 
And had all parties kept their status unchanged, this, without doubt, 
would have been the case. But the human mind is seldom, for three- 
quarters of a century at a time, stationary. This is not the law by 
which it is governed. As to the sentiment of the North, touching the 
institution of slavery, it may be doubted whether it is as decided in 
its convictions of its inexpediency and v/rongfulness now as it was 
the day the constitution was adopted; and this, too, notwithstanding 
much that has transpired, adapted in itself, to provoke the northern 
mind into an attitude of more intense hostility. While there have 
been provocations having this tendency there have also been strong 
counteracting influences. Hence the vacillation of sentiment at the 
north on this subject of deep national concern. Unless I am greatly 
mistaken history shows a great unsteadiness in the popular convinc- 
tion among us during the last seventy-four years. But amidst all the 
exciting events of this period, the antagonism to servitude as the 
permanent condition of any human being and as an essential part 
of any political organization, never has been more clearly marked 
nor expressed itself in more decided terms than it was, and was wont 
to do, during the six years succeeding the termination of the strug- 
gle that established our independence. Every one at all familiar 
with the history of his country knows well that there was a cause 
for this. So long had the attention of the people been turned in 
one direction; so intensified had become their enthusiasm in respect 
to liberty, under the influence of an eloquence, in power, perhaps^ 
never surpassed, that the very atmosphere seemed fragrant with 
freedom. Hence the orations which some may perhaps have heardy 
and many of us have read, and hence the poetry and poetic senti- 
ment that has come down to us. How full of eulogy, of encomium^ 
of panegyric, in respect to this national virtue I No name met with 
so ready and universal a response, as 

"Sweet laud of liberty." 

And no prayer went up more fervently from the American heart 
than this ; 



And again : 



" From every mouutain side- 
Let freedom rinu." 



" Lei music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all tlie trees, 
Sweet Freedom's song;." 



Now, such a sentiment could not thus pervade the nation, and yet 
the people overlook or be indifferent to those in bonds. 



13 

The enthusiasm which tliey felt in reference to their own freedom, 
from the nature of the case, would not stop when it had obtained its 
specific object, but would excite a sympathy for all in any manner 
oppressed. Such we find to have been the case. Having this ori- 
gin, the anti-slaver}' feeling was strong and active, free and untram- 
meled, in all parts of the country, at the period alluded to. 

Since that time there have been strong currents of influence set- 
ting in from an opposite direction. Among these we may mention 
that of the Democratic party as most potent. Without stopping to 
inquire whether it is to the credit or discredit of that party, we must 
confess that its control over the sentiment of the country in respect 
to this subject has been almost absolute. It has, at least, kept it, so 
far as the ISTorth is concerned, at the greatest possible remove from 
all fanaticism. The intimate relation existing for years between the 
members of this ancient party organization North, and the members 
of it South, have made it necessary that all recognition of this sub- 
ject, as one of any special political interest, should be omitted in 
making up periodical platforms. By this silence great victories 
have been achieved ; and their ascendency in the government, with 
here and there an exception, has been perpetuated from administra- 
tion to administration. At the same time, the opposition, by what- 
ever name called, have, with great caution, kept the public enuncia- 
tions of their political faith safely within the limits of the most 
weighty precedents. Though within the last six years these party 
utterances have plainly been anti-slavery in their tone, there has not 
been manifest the most distant intention of interfering with the in- 
stitution where it does and may hereafter exist by State authority. 
The Democratic party lays claim to the honor of having been the 
conservative element in our government. And so far as the ques- 
tion of slavery in the North is concerned, its claim should be al- 
lowed. 

On the contrary, the Southern mind has evidently undergone a 
great change. At the close of the revolution, and at the time the 
constitution was framed and adopted, it differed but little from the 
Northern. The same enthusiasm in respect to freedom pervaded the 
South as the North, and with nearly the same result, so far as the 
sentiment in reference to slavery is concerned. The people of the 
South, as well as those of the North, regarded it as inconsistent with 
the sentiment, then in the ascendency, impolitic and wrong. The 
following extract from a letter of Thomas Jefi'erson to Dr. Price, of 
England, written in 1785, is an exponent of the sentiment then en- 



14 

tertained : " Northward of tlie Chesapeake, you may find, here and 
there, an opponent to your doctrine, (viz.: of emancipation) as you 
may find, here and there, a robber and murderer, but in no greater 
number. * ■'' * '■' Virginia is the next State to which 
we may turn our eyes for the interesting spectacle of justice, in con- 
flict with avarice and oppression ; a conflict in wliich the sacred side 
is gaining daily recruits, from the influx into office of young men 
grown and growing up. These have sucked in the principles of lib- 
erty, as it were, with their mother's milk, and it is to them I look 
with anxiety to turn the fate of this question." lie adds, " The 
College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, is the place where 
are collected together all the young men of Virginia, under prepa- 
ration for public life. They are there under the direction (most of 
them) of a Mr. Wythe, one of the most virtuous of characters, and 
whose sentiments on the subject of slavery are unequivocal." 

From a deep moral conviction of its sinfulness and injustice; and 
from a constant fear of the judgments that might fall upon commu- 
nities and the nation as a consequence ; the Southern mind now rec- 
ognizes it as the foundation of its political science ; as an essential 
element of its civilization ; and regards its endless perpetuity the 
highest christian duty. Between the writings of the sage of Monti- 
cello and the late speeches of the Hon. A. H. Stevens, delivered at 
Savannah and at Hichraond, there is certainly as great a distance as 
the human mind ever travels in three-quarters of a century. And 
yet each faithfully, as far as a single mind can, represents the belief 
of his time. How wide asunder, then, is the South of 1789 and the 
South of 1861 ! 

It is sometimes said that this great change in the South is the re- 
sult of Northern interference and irritation. But we have already 
shown that the North has merely maintained its original position ; 
has been in the main consistent with itself; has abolished slavery, as 
it had a right to do, Avithin the older States, and prevented its intro- 
duction into territory out of Avhich new ones have been formed. 
Also, at the formation of the Constitution, this was not only known 
to be the attitude of the North, but that the South was not essen- 
tially different. There must therefore have been a departure of the 
South from this position, before irritation was possible. Besides, it 
is unjust to the South, and a libel upon Southern intellect, to affirm 
that a small party at the North, called Abolitionists, without influ- 
ence over Northern intellect, whose meetings, even here, have re- 
quired the protection of a heavy police, have driven the South to 



15 

desperation and madness. Every true, well-informed Southerner 
would repel the insinuation as dishonorable to his manhood. The 
change, then, has been not in the Northern but in the Southern 
mind. 

With this view harmonize all the facts in the case. A separation 
has taken place in all the great leading religious denominations of 
the country; but it will be seen, by reference to the records, that the 
denomination in each case only came up to, but did not exceed in its 
resolutions, or minutes, or canons, the sentiment once universal over 
the country. It only occupied its ancient position in respect to the 
principle of involuntary servitude ; and, from a change in the senti- 
ment of the South, this is offensive. Consequently, they can no 
longer affiliate with those with whom they once took sweet counsel, 
and walked to the house of God in company. 

The Democratic party did everything that honorable and patriotic 
men could do to prevent the dissolution of the party. They con- 
ceded ; they were silent: they suffered the good name of their be- 
loved organization to be tarnished by acts of questionable political 
integrity ; but all to no purpose. Strand after strand of the cord 
that had bound them together, through many years, in harmony, 
parted, until it could hold no longer. 

At Charleston, and again at Baltimore, it was evident that the 
South was unwilling to go into the canvass upon old issues, or to co- 
operate longer upon the old guarantees. It demanded a complete 
endorsement of all the essential principles which in its progress it 
had adopted ; and in case of refusal, threatened to break away for- 
ever from its old political associations. Never was there placed be- 
fore a party an issue upon which more depended ; and never was a 
party more coixscious of the grave responsibilities resting upon it. 
Time was taken for deliberation. The delegates went back, and had 
a fresh interview with the people. They returned, and did what 
alone as high-minded men they could do — re-affirmed the well- 
known doctrines of the party. The South withdrew, and affirmed 
what was more in harmony with the new sentiments, now pervading 
that section of the land. 

The Republic has shared the same fate. While the North has 
been and is content to abide under the Constitution and by the cov- 
enants and compromises contained therein, the South has been, for a 
long time, restive under them, and has sought an opportunity, too 
anxiously, to break away from them. Hence, the movement, hav- 



16 

ing for its object, so far as they are concerned, a change in the Con- 
stitution of the United States, was begun by them. 

It is not Lincoln's, but Washington's Jefferson's, Madison's, Ham- 
ilton's government, or, in other words, the people's government of 
1789, that they in truth object to. Hence, here as elsewhere, they 
are the first to anticipate the rupture, and tlie first to prepare for it. 
They are the first to take the sword, and carry the issue to the bat- 
tlefield. 

II. We are now prepared to answer the inquiry. What is the oc- 
casion of the war now upon us, and what is the question now to be 
decided by the sword? It is not whether slavery shall be continued 
or abolished. 

A mind, gross and unaccustomed to discriminating and accurate 
thought, can easily mistake the real issue, and affirm that it is " an 
abolition war." But as yet, so far as I know, neither party is anx- 
ious to have such an issue introduced into the contest. Notwith- 
standing the cry, that ever and anon salutes our ear, against " abo- 
lition Yankees," &c., no part of the country would be more surprised 
than the one most frequently using these opprobrious terms, should 
the government declare all the bondmen in the land free, and com- 
mence battling in earnest to sustain such a declaration. I appre- 
hend that few are as yet ready for such a Jubilee. What then is the 
great question ? It is this : Whether the government shall be ad- 
ministered under the present Constitution, or Avhether it shall be set 
aside and another substituted, more closely conforming to the pres- 
ent views of the South in regard to the institution of slaver3^ That 
this is the true issue ma}'' be seen from the fact that another consti- 
tution, of this character, is now claiming to be the supreme law of a 
portion of the land. 

The fact can not be disguised that there exist in this Republic two 
rival civilizations, with elements widely different from each other, and 
the two constitutions are their proper exponents. The old reflects 
the type of the civilization of '76, and is based upon the great prin- 
ciples of freedom and equality of rights ; and the new upon the as- 
sumption that tlic natural condition of a portion of the human fam- 
ily is that of subordination and servitude. No man can claim the 
right of speaking for the South better than the Hon. A. H. Stevens, 
of Georgia. His preeminence as a statesma)i, his poAver as an ora- 
tor, and his present official position, all" give him the right to speak 
in behalf of the South. In his Savannah speech, delivered the 21st 



17 

of March last, alluding to the new Constitution, he says: "It has 
put to rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar 
institution. African slavery, as it exists among us, is the proper 
status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the imme- 
diate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. The pre- 
vailing ideas entertained by Jefferson, and most of the leading states- 
men, at the time of the formation of the old Constitution, were, that 
the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of 
nature, that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and polit- 
ically. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They 
rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an 
error. Our new government Avas founded upon exactly the oppo- 
site ideas. Its foundations are laid, its corner stone rests, upon the 
great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that 
slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal 
condition." He intimates that other »States may leave their present 
connection and unite with them, under the new Constitution, " but 
not until they are ready to assimilate with us in principle." Every 
thoughtful man will see that the question, which has brought this 
peril to our government, and almost to our very doors, is a momen- 
tous one. It has already driven wide asunder the sections of the 
country entertaining opposite views in reference to it. It necessa- 
rily creates a state of society altogether different ; forms individual 
character upon a different basis ; and, in a word, destroys all sympa- 
thy of one part for the other. Where slavery exists, the education 
of children and youth bears little resemblance to their education 
where it does not exist. The hospitality has also a widely different 
type. The social brilliancy of the Capital, in years gone by, has 
mainly been sustained by members of Congress and other pub- 
lic functionaries from the South. It is this effect which the institu- 
tion has upon all the relations of life, that has fascinated, almost in- 
toxicated, the public mind of the South with admiration of it. It is 
this that makes them so jubilant over their new constitution ; and it 
is this that renders them so confident that they have not only a dif- 
ferent, but a higher and better civilization than obtains at the North, 
or anywhere else among the nations. And it is in defense of all this 
that they seceded from the old and established their new form of 
government, and now with such unanimity and enthusiasm appear 
upon the battlefield. It is, on the other hand, in defense of the old, 
that the North, with equal unanimity and enthusiasm, clad in the 
panoply of war, confront them. 



18 

Such are the real nature and significancj and magnitude of this 
contest. And gentlemen, however honest, who think the war a trivial 
one, which may be stopped by a few newspaper paragraphs and 
stump speeches, have not well considered the question at issue. All 
the history of the past tells us, however unwilling we may be 
to listen to its message, that the conflict will be protracted and se- 
vere; and that it can be terminated only by a war in which the vic- 
tory of the one part, and the defeat and exhaution of the other will 
be complete and decisive. 

III. It is not always in these great national conflicts that men, 
even the most sagacious, have a clear, well-defined conception of the 
ultimate issue to which Providence is conducting events. 

"There's a divinity tliatshnpes our ends, 
Roiigli iiew tiiem liow we will." 

It is true that in the beginning our ancestors aimed not at inde- 
pendence. The beginning was a simple question of abstract consti- 
tutional rights. When what they deemed an encroachment, a viola- 
tion of these rights was continued, then they petitioned and remon- 
strated, hoping thereby to efi"ect a discontinuance of the grievance. 
But as the discussion advanced the contest deepened, until war was 
inevitable and independence a necessity. 

The civil war now raging in this republic is, as we have shown, the 
result of a growth and gradual development of the sentiment of the 
South in reference to the proper, permanent position of the negro 
race in the social economy. When the public mind becomes settled 
as to the true position of the negro— that this position should be 
given him, and he reduced to it, is only another right belonging to 
the superior race; and the constitution of the country should be so 
framed as to guaranty this among other rights, or to be intolerably 
defective. One has been so made ; and the setting up of this over 
territory already under another, is, as all the world knows, revolution 
or rebellion. And open rebellion is war. And so the war bec^an. 
Thus far all is plain; for all is history. The aim of the South has 
been and is at present only to hold the position taken; not, however, 
concealing the expectation that their advanced civilization will com- 
mend itself soon to others, and ere long to all; and then their con- 
stitution become the supreme law of the land. Thus they hope that 
unity will once more return to the nation. 

The United States government on the other hand is only striving 
to maintain its former existence and power undiminished. It aims 



19 

at nothing beyond. But is there a will and an arm among us potent 
enough to restrain all concerned within the limits of their present 
purpose? 

Is there a prophet among us who can tell whitlier the current 
now bearing us onward will ultimately hmd us ? Can he tell us what 
issues may not, from necessity, be mixed up, and become the leading 
issues in this great conflict? Can any one assure us that before 
peace can be restored to the nation, and perhaps in order to its 
restoration, necessity may not compel the government to undo the 
heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free ? But whatever of good 
or ill the Providence of God may have in store for us, one thing may 
be certain : We shall not end the war as we began it. There will 
be an end to it ; but during the struggle the sentiment of the whole 
country will undergo a great change, and the administration of the 
government will thence forward conform to this chan<^e 

IV. We have need of humiliation and prayer, as may be seen 
from what has been said. A great and exhausting war, like the one 
we are engaged in, may not be in itself conclusive proof of great 
national sins. It is evidence, primarily, of a great and radical dif- 
ference of sentiment in relation to something within the proper 
sphere of government, and of nothing more. But as the final issue 
of the contest depends not altogether, nor mainly, upon unaided hu- 
man wisdom or human prowess, but upon divine direction and bles- 
sing, it is well to inquire whether we are in a condition as a nation 
to receive aid from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Are we 
conscious, is our conviction deep and unchanging, that our cause is 
just; for 

"Thrice is he armed, who hath his quarrel just, 
And he but naked, though locked up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted." 

Have we, as a nation, been free from pride, arrogance and 'vain 
glory? If we have not, we do well to remember that He in whose 
hands is our destiny, beholds the proud, however great their necessi- 
ties, afar off. 

Have we been careful to elect men to ofllice who fear God and 
reverence his will; and who do not use the eminence to which our 
suffrages elevated them to lead the nation away into practical politi- 
cal atheism ? Have we not caused good men to feel that between 
them and their representatives of different grades there is, morally, 
an entire want of sympathy ? Does not the very name, " politi- 
cian," " office-seeker," " office-holders," by the mere force of asso- 



20 

ciation, call up before the mind a character which no moral man 
would wish himself or any of his friends to possess ? Have we as 
citizens flung away ambition, and have we been anxious that all the 
ends aimed at might be our country's, our God's, and truths ? And 
are we strong in our confidence that in all this war God will be our 
o-oodness, our fortress, our high tower and our deliverer ? I greatly 
fear that before we can thus good forward with Avell-placed confi- 
dence, there is need of great humiliation and true confession of our 
many and great offences before the Most High. 

We shudder at the rehearsal of the impiety and madness of the 
French in their revolution, worshipping Reason, in the form of a 
beautiful but shameless female. Demoiselle Candielle, of the opera ; 
or erecting on the ruins of the Bastelle a statue of nature, gigantic, 
spouting Avater from two mammelles; and to these symbolic foun- 
tains throngs of deluded citizens coming with the rising of the sun 
to drink, and praise the wondrous device. But are we altogether 
clean of the same folly and sin ? When we speak of the triumph of 
right, without any consideration of our standing in the sight of Him, 
without whose aid and blessing right can not gain the ascendency 
over wrong; when our confidence of success in this struggle is based 
upon the progress of society and the general result of revolutions ; 
and when we rely upon superior^numbers and resources, wherein does 
our practical atheism differ from that of the French in 1789, it is not 
easy to be seen. The citizen is short sighted indeed who has not 
seen, nay, who does not now see, that we are beset with difficulties 
which are not under our control, and yet which, but for the restrain- 
ing influence of God's hand, may at any moment so complicate this 
whole question as to turn our advantages into weakness. 

There is need then, special, pressing need of humiliation and 
prayer ; and let no one feel that the services in which, at the sugges- 
tion' of our Chief Magistrate, we this day engage, are uncalled for 
and of trivial importance. But Avhether we assemble in our sanctu- 
aries or bend the knee around our domestic altars, or bow before 
God in our closets, let us humble ourselves and cry unto God to spare 
to us and our posterity the inestimable blessings so abundantly given 
hitherto to this Republic. 






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